The City of Charlestown, Nevis

The second candidate, and what that word means.

UNESCO's record for Saint Kitts and Nevis lists the City of Charlestown on the country's Tentative List, entered in 1998. A Tentative List is an inventory of properties a State Party intends to consider for nomination.

So Charlestown is a candidate rather than a World Heritage Site, and it has not since been inscribed. That is the same position as the historic zone of Basseterre, entered in the same year. Neither of the two towns is an inscribed property, and the Federation's only inscription is Brimstone Hill Fortress National Park.

Two capitals, which is the fact behind the listing.

Charlestown is the capital of Nevis, as Basseterre is the capital of St Kitts. That the Federation put both towns forward in the same year says something worth carrying into a visit: these are two islands with two centers, not one island and its annex.

Nevis has its own administration and its own history, and Charlestown is where both are visible. The town is small, low and walkable, and its character is timber and shingle with fretwork verandas rather than stone and grandeur.

The history the waterfront is made of.

The plantation economy of these islands rested on sugar and on slavery. The Brimstone Hill Fortress National Park Society's history of the Federation records that the native Amerindians were virtually exterminated and African people brought in as slaves, and that the plantation system had its beginnings in St Christopher and the other early colonies.

Charlestown's surviving buildings are the commercial architecture of that system: the waterfront, the warehouses, the merchants' premises. Our history and heritage guide follows the subject further, including the museum that sits a short walk along the shore.

Getting there, and what this guide leaves out.

Charlestown is reached from St Kitts by sea. That crossing is the single biggest constraint on a day trip, because the schedule is somebody else's. Our transportation guide covers the crossing and the local driving license rule.

No opening hours, no ferry timetable and no admission prices appear on this page. Both national tourism websites fail to answer this environment, and no other source in this register publishes them. Confirm times locally, and leave more margin than you think a small island needs.

Photograph by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Sources

• UNESCO World Heritage Convention: Saint Kitts and Nevis States Party record: that the country accepted the Convention on 10 July 1986; that one property is inscribed on the World Heritage List, Brimstone Hill Fortress National Park, cultural, in 1999; and that two sites are on the Tentative List, the Historic zone of Basseterre and the City of Charlestown, both entered in 1998, a Tentative List being an inventory of properties a State Party intends to consider for nomination. Accessed 18 September 2026.
• Brimstone Hill Fortress National Park Society: History of the fortress: that St Christopher was the first Caribbean island to be permanently settled by both the English and the French, who shared it between 1627 and 1713, and was a springboard for English and French colonialism in the Caribbean; that the native Amerindians were virtually exterminated and African people brought in as slaves, and that the plantation system based on sugar production and slavery had its beginnings there; that the Fortress was constructed intermittently between the 1690s and 1790s and is the remains of a large, complete military community of the 18th century; that its Citadel is one of the earliest and finest surviving examples of the style of fortification known as the polygonal system; that Brimstone Hill is nearly 800 feet high with steep and precipitous slopes, its walls fashioned from the hard volcanic rock of the hill itself and its mortar produced on site from local limestone; that the site looks out over forested mountains, cultivated fields, the township of Sandy Point and neighboring islands; that it is a National Park under the National Conservation and Environment Protection Act of 1987, managed by a voluntary Society founded in 1965; and that during the 23rd session of the World Heritage Committee, held in Morocco from 29 November to 4 December 1999, the Brimstone Hill Fortress National Park was inscribed on the World Heritage List. Accessed 18 September 2026.